I finally managed to get wrangle a couple of tickets to my first “footy” match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Apart from the fiasco at trying to get to the much in-demand match between Collingwood and Hawthorn match, it was relatively easy to get tickets to this one. And why not, with the rains, the Olympic opening ceremony and the miniscule expectations from the Melbourne Demons (who are at the bottom of the ladder at the moment) against the guys at the top. The first glimpse of the hallowed green is surely a moving sight for any Indian cricket lover. Some of the greatest moments in cricket history have been made at this very venue.

After a relatively calm day at work, I picked the guys (Nikhil, Sunny and Arun) up from Carinya. We took a train into the city (my first in over a year now) reminiscing about politics, movies, world terrorism and then some more! We took our time figuring out where our seats were… not that it really mattered much, with only about 36,000 people there, we could have taken our pick of seats. We could still see quite a lot of empty seats and thats gives you an idea of how huge the stadium really is (this place now holds about 100,000 people). The energy was pretty good with it being only a quarter full, so you could tell it’d rustle a terrific atmosphere when full.

Geelong slaughtered Melbourne that day. And it was fun to watch Nick’s clean and fair team show us how its really done. We hung around for a couple of pictures for posterity sake before we headed home. All in all an entertaining evening giving me an insight into an aspect of Australian culture that could otherwise so easily get overlooked.

Image Credit: The official ‘G’ Site & Sunny

It was the winds first, the dust then and then later through the day, the rains. Yep! We had it all yesterday. It was like something straight out of a movie. With winds up to 120-130 km per hour blasting through Melbourne, it left a trail of utter chaos. Bins (with it being bin-day) and branches were strewn all over our neighborhood. Public transport was left rattled and with it the commuters as well. The most unfortunate were the deaths caused by the destruction. And while I write this I hear about another casualty. An electrical technician electrocuted while trying to restore electricity to some suburb.

On my drive back home, seeing the shorn branches and uprooted trees, I remember feeling really queasy worrying about this one massive tree on the corner of our front yard. I thanked God the minute I saw it standing there, shaken but still all there. I guess pictures shed more light than words ever would.

Photo Credits: The Age

The effects of Global Warming, folks. It isn’t going to get any better with the way things are headed. Let all do our bit to be GREEN!